<<Beware- when most people use the name 'Stockhausen' to describe another
artist, they usually have never heard any of his music. His name has become
such an anachronism that it's liberally used all over the place to describe
almost any type of music that has discord and random noise ('Cage' is
another name that gets bandied about like
this).>>
Also beware- If accessibility means anything to you at all, you'll hate all
that crap. If you're one of the elite few who actually enjoy listening to
random electronic noises with no kind of continuity--as in most musique
concrete--then congratulations, and more power to you. I'm not in that
group, and most of us aren't. I've blown a lot of dough on Cage,
Stockhausen, Varese, and similar folks and I can't get through five minutes
of any of those pieces. I love IDM. I love ambient. I love classical (up
through c. Impressionism anyway). But avant garde art music just seems to
suck all the life and love out of music. Which perhaps is the whole point,
but it's nothing you can't get listening to your air conditioner or your
toilet or your microwave. I think it's much more difficult and respectable
to write traditional, accessible music than it is to fuck around with some
plugs and microphones for awhile. Aesthetically I see almost nothing in
common between IDM and modern art music, but if IDM artists like Autechre
claim Stockhausen as an influence, then I can't argue with that. Still the
existence of beats alone in most IDM distances it worlds away from art
music-- IDM is a child of beats, be they techno beats or hip hop beats or
Krautrock-- and most of it (some of the purer glitch might be an exception)
has practically nothing in common with those early electronic classical
composers, except that both are electronic. I don't see the connection
between Reich and minimal techno either, except maybe that both can be
really repetitive at times, but that certainly doesn't show influence. I
mean, lots of Indian (at least South Indian) and African musics employ
percussive minimalism and polyrhythms, but it would be quite silly to claim
they're anywhere near Steve Reich aesthetically. I think the same goes for
Detroit techno. Similarity != influence. Appreciation != influence. I can
appreciate Mozart and produce minimal techno, and I think it would be
misleading to conclude Mozart has been an influence on my minimal techno.
Except in the most platitudinous sense that everything influences everything
else (within a sphere of the speed of light, of course); e.g. what I ate for
breakfast is affecting what I'm typing now. Damn you, Golden Grahams, damn
you!
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